Dear WAI Interest Group
We are pleased to announce the next annual Sidar conference - "More
Accessibility, Better Accessibility", on the 3-5 of November. This
takes place within the activities of the European Year of People with
Disabilities and the Program ACESSO of the Presidency of the Portuguese
Council of Ministers.
The government of Portugal responded to the electronic petition of
around 9000 citizens by becoming the first European country to
legislate for Web Accessibility. But accessibility of the Web for
people with "special needs" (including people with disabilities and the
elderly) is not just a state responsibility. It is a question that
should be in the minds of all who produce electronic content, and the
millions of users who find themselves having "special needs" for
accessing the Web depend on it.
It is possible to give them the response they need, applying
Accessibility requirements to Web design without sacrificing a visually
attractive Web, as has been demonstrated by the specialists of the
Fundacion Sidar in work it does and participates in.
This year the Fundacion has the honour of accepting the invitation of
the program ACESSO to hold its seventh annual conference in Lisbon. The
program is available at
http://www.sidar.org/acti/jorna/7jorna/progra7.php in preliminary form,
and in Spanish. As with other years it includes participation from
internationally recognised experts, and provides the opportunity to
learn more about the latest developments in tools, protocols, formats
and design projects. The final session will be the review of the year's
work in Sidar's interest groups, and planning for the next year's work,
aiming to gather a critical mass of work on accessibility in the
Iberoamerican languages.
The venue for the conference is completely wheelchair accessible. The
official languages of the conference are Spanish and Portuguese, and
simultaneous translation to Portuguese will be provided. Registration
is available in spanish at
http://www.sidar.org/acti/jorna/7jorna/index.php and is also available
in Portuguese.
This conference will be an opportunity to strengthen the already close
links between Portuguese, South American and Spanish members of Sidar.
We look forward to your company in Lisbon!